A disk drive is an information storage device. A disk drive includes one or more disks clamped to a rotating spindle, and at least one head for reading information representing data from and/or writing data to the surfaces of each disk. The head is supported by a suspension coupled to an actuator that may be driven by a voice coil motor. Control electronics in the disk drive provide electrical pulses to the voice coil motor to move the head to desired positions on the disks to read and write the data, and to park the head in a safe area when not in use or when otherwise desired for protection of the disk drive.
A seek operation is an operation where the voice coil motor is provided current to cause the head to find the proper track of data in which to read or write. Typically in a normal seek, as much current as possible is drive through the actuator voice coil motor to maximize the performance of the disk drive by minimizing the seek time.
Parking the head or heads may need to be done quickly to avoid damage to the head, disks, and data stored on the disks. There is a need to increase the speed at which the head is parked. Parking the heads quickly has been done by providing a large amount of current to the voice coil motor. However, such large currents may cause excessive heating of the electronics, leading to damage. Older, larger disk drives employed current pulses in an open loop to avoid burning up electronics. There is a need to retract the heads quickly, without causing excessive heating and damage to the electronics or motor.
The description set out herein illustrates the various embodiments of the invention and such description is not intended to be construed as limiting in any manner.